Cleveland writer Hoynes earns HOF call with renamed Platinum Pen Award

ORLANDO, Fla. -- It’s called the “Hawk Call.”

For decades, a highlight of the experience of covering baseball games at old Cleveland Municipal Stadium or Progressive/Jacobs Field was that midgame moment when Paul Hoynes, the Indians/Guardians beat reporter for the Plain Dealer and then Cleveland.com, would suddenly spring to his feet and let out a wild and enthusiastic yowl like some sort of mating bird. The whole press box would applaud, and whoever held the golden ticket for that half-inning would receive the pool of collected dollar bills from this Saturday home game tradition.

Though still very much working the beat, the 74-year-old Hoynes may not do the “Hawk Call” anymore. But he received a much better call Tuesday -- the one sending him to the Hall of Fame.

“Hoynsie,” as he’s affectionately known, was named the 2026 recipient of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Platinum Pen Award (renamed from Career Excellence Award) at the association’s annual Winter Meetings gathering. Awarded “for meritorious contributions to baseball writing,” it’s the highest prize a baseball scribe can achieve, and it was given to a guy who has doggedly, indefatigably and entertainingly done the job since 1983.

Hoynes, who will accept the honor during Hall of Fame induction weekend next July in Cooperstown, N.Y., was emotional in addressing his BBWAA brethren.

“They’re going crazy in Cleveland right now,” he said of his family. “Even my wife is excited, and she’s been married to me for over 50 years!”

The others on the ballot for the 2026 Platinum Pen were the late Scott Miller, a highly respected national baseball writer who passed away this year from pancreatic cancer, and Tom Verducci, the elite Sports Illustrated columnist and MLB Network and FOX broadcaster.

All three were eminently deserving, and Hoynes expressed genuine shock and teary-eyed gratitude that all those years of sleepily slogging through airports (Hoynes is famous for booking complicated, connecting airline travel that saves his company a few bucks at the expense of his own time), accidentally putting on two belts in his rush to make it to the park (true story), getting thrown into a locker by an angry Mel Hall (another true story), getting random, ranting phone calls from a retired Albert Belle (yet another true story), and shaking down quotes and info from the Cleveland clubhouse was rewarded in such a way.

Born in Cleveland, Hoynes received his journalism degree at Marquette University, where he perfected the “Hawk Call” as a member of the rugby team. He went on to work for the Plain Dealer, initially covering high school sports and the NFL’s Browns and NBA’s Cavaliers before taking on the baseball beat.

He’s been a fixture in press boxes across the country ever since. Through those dog days in their decrepit old home to the glory days ushered in by the move to a new ballpark in 1994 to all that has transpired since, Hoynes and the team have been inextricably linked.

So much of the job is showing up, making your presence known to the players and developing relationships with them and taking the heat when you take them to task. When Hoynes was BBWAA president in 2007, he was on the stage in Cooperstown for Cal Ripken Jr.’s induction. Hoynes has been a baseball “Iron Man” of a different sort, covering more than 6,000 games and owning the most bylines in Plain Dealer history.

“I just like the job,” Hoynes said. “I like the day to day of it, I like the grind of it.”

Then he chuckled.

“Besides,” he said, “I can’t do anything else! Every January, my wife goes, ‘Don’t you have somewhere to be?’"

The best example of Hoynes’ honesty and integrity came in 2016, when he declared in print in mid-September that Cleveland had too many injuries to go on an extended postseason run. He was challenged to jump into the frigid Lake Erie if proven wrong, and he agreed.

Sure enough, Cleveland went on a wild and unexpected run to the American League pennant, and Hoynsie threw on a swimming cap and honored the bet.

Show up every day for long enough, and you’ll see some things. Hoynsie has seen a lot and, along the way, brought his own flair for the written word and sense of humor to the sport. He didn’t do it to be honored. He didn’t expect to be honored, especially on such a loaded ballot.

But on Tuesday, he stood up and received a deserved round of applause from his fellow writers. And he didn’t even have to do the “Hawk Call” to get it.